Key Information

The trouble with aspirations

When a council has aspirations it needs to ensure that it has the rest of the community behind it - it needs to have sound reasoning for its proposals and an understanding of what the outcomes might be. If that same council chooses to ignore the local community then it only has itself to blame when things become difficult - its sole raison d'etre is to serve the community - not to dictate to it.

The coalition government has proclaimed its desire to give power back to the community - that does not mean the local councils - it means the people themselves.

The people of Rackheath and Salhouse have been saying for the last few years that they do not want massive development locally which will take away the rural life that they currently enjoy - why won't Broadland District Council listen? Did they think we don't care? Did they not realize that we had chosen to live in villages rather than a town? Did they not think that we might want our children to grow up in a village environment and enjoy a more rural way of life? Did they not realize that some young people have this dream too? The Joint Core Strategy is pretty clear that Brundall and Blofield should not be allowed to coalesce but it doesn't it doesn't bother to stipulate that Salhouse, Rackheath, Thorpe End, Little & Great Plumstead and Norwich should enjoy the same privilege - why not?

Yes, we need more houses but not vast housing estates that will subsume the villages and make us all part of Greater Norwich - you only have to look at Greater London or Great Manchester to understand what that means.We need more housing to accommodate young families and individuals who will ensure that our villages flourish and grow and our shops and schools remain. We need people who will fill local jobs and provide essential skills such as building, carpentry, plumbing, teaching, engineering etc etc for the community. We welcome new local businesses and opportunities but all on a sustainable scale that will help ensure public transport is still viable and is an attractive alternative to the car. However, we also value our local farmers and the job they are doing for us and for future generations and we value the environment in which they work and we live. Long may it remain.

7 comments:

Broadland Councillor will only have themselves to blaim if they lose the May Elections. Can we not find some local people who will stand as Councillors to represent US and not the so called "Big Picture" as promoted by the Developers

Just heard that Broadland Council are thinking of building yet more houses, this time on the Bure Valley Railway car park at Aylsham. I thought BDC built this great tourist attraction, yet they now seem to want to crucify it. Where will this greed stop ?

Yes I was at the Bure Valley Railway AGM on Saturday and horrified to hear the news that Broadland DC are trying to destroy the railway by building on the car park. An old Chairman from Broadland DC was there and he seemed just as concerned as all the others. What is this wretched Council doing ?

Just how many more times are Broadland and the GNDP Quango going to change the goalposts. First the Exemplar was part of the Ecotown, now its a "stand Alone". Then it was No NDR, NO Ecotown, now this is another Stand Alone. The promises from our Council sadly mean NOTHING.Roll on next May.

We REALLY DO have to seriously consider putting up candidates in next May 5th elections. This current council is just not listening to its residents. We have to hope the planning inspectors have seen their game and throw out the JCS plans, following the recent examination.The developers will keep trying,our councils should be making sure that only sensible and required building is allowed. They need to look much more closely at existing brownfield areas in Norwich and the surrounding towns and villages,(St Crispins and HMSO Office sites to name but two),NOT take the easy course and swallow up valuable greeenfield areas with speculative building to sell to incoming peoplewho are not local residents.